Being sick in Spain...not fun.

So, long time, no post. I´m soooooooo sorry about that!

Hmmm...what have I been up to?

Well, for starters, this past weekend, we were supposed to take a day trip to Gibralter, but alas, Spanish colds got in the way and we were forced to reschedule.  In the meantime, we spent Saturday recouperating and Sunday studying, all in all, a relaxing weekend filled with rain and a couple of hours of sunshine.  Speaking of rain, it has become our constant companion, at least for the next week!  Urugh!  What happened to the sunshine Andalucia boasts?!  Well, I guess the whole world is experiencing strange weather...like the freak snow the States have become accustomed to--I hear it´s supposed to snow again in Fort Worth and that Omaha will get a couple more inches!

Also, I am glad to report that along with my cold disappearing, I have regained full use of my ankle.  Which is good, since I´m planning on a 5 day trip to Madrid and surrounding cities this coming weekend.  We leave Thursday morning and end up in Toledo, where we´ll be spending the day and night.  Then it´s off to Madrid, which will be our home base for the rest of the trip.  From Madrid, we´re taking daytrips to Avila via the Valley of the Fallen (including a cool cave-cathedral/museum Popop and Yadie told me about) and the castle that was the headquarters of  the inquisition in this area.  Also, we´re going to Segovia to see the Roman aquaduct!  Yay!  It´ll be quite a whirlwind trip, but I think it´ll be great!  Can´t wait--I´ll let you know all about it when we return.

Also, last night, I received the ´go ahead´ from the parents for the Morocco trip!  So Kelli, Becky, and I are going to book that after school today!

Speaking of, school is going well, I think I´m finally getting the hang of it/getting back into the ´studying´ mode.  (Wow, it´s taken me long enough!)  My work includes a LOT of reading, but I think I´ve got a good system down...I read through it, underlining the words I don´t know.  Then I look up the words, insert them into the story, and re-read it!  Yes, it is very time consuming, but I figure by reading it twice I should get the ´gist of it!  If not, then it´s off to the internet to see if there´s something big that I missed.  And that, my friends, is the strategy I´m working off of!

I just finished The People Of The Book by Geraldine Brooks.  It was a fantastic book.  A majority of it takes place in Andalucia--specifically Sevilla!!!  They describe the castle, which I have been to and could picture the exact rooms they were working in and exploring.  I have now moved onto my next vampire book, surprise, surprise! (Thank you, Tricia, for fueling this obsession of mine.)

On an agravating note, I feel like I´ve hit a wall with my Spanish.  It´s still getting easy for me to just try to say what I want to say, but now, I´m realizing that my grammer needs a lot of work.  I guess it´s an improvement that I´m actually realizing I´m not saying things correctly, but it´s so FRUSTRATING!!  I´m trying to speak more with my friends, and all the reading I´m doing for my classes is helping, but I´ve definitely slowed to a crawl in terms of learning (or so it seems).

Well, more to come soon! And this time, it will be within the week (instead of three weeks later).

I miss you all!  Have fun in Florida!  Te Quiero!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Lauren